Vlosh worked with his top advisers, devising a plan of attack against the Mulgor. They would use their fighter jets to push the Mulgor armada back and then ground troops would land on Earth to take out the alien invaders who remained.

Just as Vlosh was ready to give the command to launch the first of the fighter jets, the communication device on the inside wrist of his uniform pinged, letting him know he had an incoming message. He flicked two fingers down his wrist and Commander Or came onto the screen.

“What is it Commander Or?” Vlosh demanded. “We are about to launch our fighter jets against the Mulgor as we speak.”

“General Torr, I wanted to be the one to inform you that your match has been identified.”

“What?” Vlosh shook his head in disbelief. He had never intended to join the mating lottery and be mated with a human. Sure, maybe in the future he would enter his DNA into the pool and possibly find a human woman to have his babies. But now was the worst possible time to get involved with one of these “strong-willed” human women.

“Commander, I don’t have time for this,” he said. “Send me the information, and I will deal with it later.”

With that, he flicked his fingers down his wrist and closed off the communication. Damn. He could already feel his inner dragon coming to life and growling with need.

Just knowing that the woman existed had triggered his mating impulse, and his inner dragon would be impossible to control until he had claimed her as his own. This was a worst case scenario and the exact reason he had not wanted to get involved with the mating lottery until the Mulgor were dealt with. Ideally, until the Mulgor were wiped out of existence.

Draconians lived for several hundred years, and Vlosh was only seventy-five. He had plenty of time to find a human to mate with. Unlike humans, from what Vlosh understood, Draconians had an ideal match.

They used their computer systems to match up the genetics of the species they mated with. But the computer matching system was only a way of expediting the process of finding one’s true mate.

If a Draconian came face-to-face with his fated mate, his dragon would surely tell him in no uncertain terms. Just as his dragon was telling him now.

“Launch the fighter jets,” Vlosh said through clenched teeth. The lieutenants on the bridge began giving orders to the pilots in the docking bay. Jet after jet launched from the command ship and sped out in fighting formation towards the Mulgor armada that orbited the Earth.

While it might take human vessels years to travel the distance between Mars and Earth, it only took the Draconian fighter jets a few moments to reach the Mulgor fleet. They launched their opening salvo of high-powered laser beams against the Mulgor armada. The fighter jets were able to easily maneuver around the shots from the Mulgor’s large, slow ships.

Vlosh watched the screen as his fighter jets finished their first salvo and flew into their second formation. The Mulgor launched their own jets into space, and the two warring species began an intricate dance between their quickest, deadliest fighters.

“Launch the second attack,” Vlosh commanded. The second brigade of fighter jets launched from the docking bay and sped toward the Mulgor fleet. He could tell that the Draconians outnumbered the Mulgor two to one, unless they had additional jets of their own.

After a few moments of intense battle, it became clear that the Mulgor did not have additional jet fighters.

“The Mulgor are beginning evasive maneuvers,” said one of the officers on the bridge. “The mothership is retreating and the fighter jets are covering its escape.”

“Continue the attack at full power. Blast them with everything we’ve got,” Vlosh said. This was exactly what he had wanted to happen. It was the best case scenario. But he couldn’t rest on his laurels. There was always some hidden variable in the equation. He had to be careful.

“The Mulgor are retreating towards Venus,” the officer said.

“Keep with them. Let them know we mean business,” Vlosh said. His fighter jets had taken out the majority of the Mulgor vessels, and they were in pursuit of the rest of the fleet, peppering them with laser missiles.

“The Mulgor are in orbit around Venus and have put up their defensive shields.”

“Their ships cannot attack with their shields up,” Vlosh said, thinking aloud. “Recall the fighter jets. But keep a rotation of ships attacking them every fifteen minutes. We want them to know we mean business.”

“Yes sir,” his officer said.

“We need additional units to land on Earth to exterminate the Mulgor who remain.”

“Mulgor ships are retreating from Earth as we speak, sir.”

“Good. This is just as I had hoped. But we have to ensure that every last Mulgor scum has been removed from the planet surface.”

“Yes sir,” his officer said, carrying out his orders.

Taking a deep breath, Vlosh flicked the communication screen on the wrist of his uniform and brought up the information about his mate. A picture of a young woman came onto the screen. She was curvy and strong and had a big, bright smile on her full lips. Her hair was wavy and dark and her skin was a dusky shade of brown that he found particularly appealing. The shape of her body and the look in her dark brown eyes instantly made him aroused.

His dragon screamed and he could feel the beast flapping its heavy wings within his mind. His dragon scratched at the back of his eyeballs painfully, and Vlosh squeezed his eyes shut against the agony his own inner beast was causing him. This was exactly what he did not need right now. The sight of the girl did something unexpected to him. It wasn’t just the scream of his dragon, it was something else, something deeper, something that appealed directly to the man in him.

She was beautiful, that was for sure. But there was something about her that seemed so brave and strong.

He began to read the information about her. She had grown up poor but had received a scholarship to a human university to play a sport called tennis. She’d studied physical activity, or as the humans called it exercise science. He found that interesting and attractive in a strange sort of way. Draconian women were rare, and highly prized. They spent most of their lives in absolute luxury and would often grow round from inactivity.

This girl was round and curvaceous but it was from her strength. He admired the thickness of her limbs and the muscles in her arms and thighs. If he hadn’t been in the middle of a war, he would have gone directly for her and made her his own as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that. Not yet.